Techmeme: Toronto-based Lendified, an online lender offering small business loans of up to $150K available within 48 hours, raises $15M Series A (Meagan Simpson/BetaKit)

Top News

Zak Doffman / Forbes:

Report: CIA shared intelligence with US allies showing Huawei received funding from Chinese security and intelligence agencies and the People's Liberation Army — In the battle between Washington and Huawei, there has long been the taunt from Shenzhen that U.S. officials have failed to produce …

Source: The Times & The Sunday Times. More: Reuters, Engadget, The Verge, Gizmodo, The Times & The Sunday Times, Business Insider, Daily Mail, The Hill, Axios, USA Today, and Slashdot

Tweets: @w7voa, @yannikouts, @emilybell, and @1br0wn

Rachel Becker / The Verge:

Researchers: 33 of 36 apps for depression or smoking cessation shared data with third-parties and 2 apps shared very sensitive info, like health diary entries — ‘Do I trust the person who made the app, and do I understand where this data is going?’ — Free apps marketed to people …

More: Engadget. Tweets: @verge

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

The French Government officially launches Tchap, its own messaging app with end-to-end encryption, after patching a security flaw found upon initial release — The French government just launched its own messaging app called Tchap in order to protect conversations from hackers, private companies and foreign entities.

More: ZDNet, Forbes, Security Affairs, ResearchBuzz, Elliot Alderson, The Hacker News, and Slashdot

Tweets: @datenfresser, @campuscodi, @fs0c131y, and @zackwhittaker

Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:

Research paper argues that Facebook increased user surveillance as its competitors exited the market, makes the case for antitrust action against the company — In 2017, a 28-year-old law student named Lina Kahn turned the antitrust world on its ear with her Yale Law Review paper …

More: Institute for New …. Tweets: @livingstone_s, @braveneweurope1, @gf_polizzi, @r0h1n, and @ineteconomics

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

HipChat co-founders raise $3M in seed funding for Swoot, a social podcast app that lets users recommend podcasts and see what their friends are listening to — Pete Curley and Garret Heaton, who previously co-founded team chat app HipChat and sold it to Atlassian, are officially launching their new product Swoot today.

The Information:

Sources: Qualcomm's joint venture with Guizhou province on a server chip plant will be shut down; Qualcomm and the province spent $570M on the plant since 2016 — A joint venture between Qualcomm and the government of a rural Chinese province to make server chips will wind down by the end of the month …

More: Reuters

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

SiriusXM launches SiriusXM Essential, an $8/month streaming only plan for mobiles and smart speakers that gives access to 200+ channels — SiriusXM wants to cater consumers without cars, or cars without compatible stereos, with a new $8 plan for mobile and in-home listening.

More: The Verge, Engadget, and Mashable

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Autonomous car startup Pony.ai launches PonyPilot, a pilot ride-hailing service for its employees within a 50 square kilometer area in Guangzhou, China — Guangzhou, China-based self-driving startup Pony.ai is joining an exclusive club of companies that have launched autonomous ride-hailing programs.

Tweets: @jeroenbartelse

Meagan Simpson / BetaKit:

Toronto-based Lendified, an online lender offering small business loans of up to $150K available within 48 hours, raises $15M Series A — Lendified, a Toronto-based FinTech, announced today that it has closed a $15 million CAD Series A funding round, in order to continue its growth within Canada.

More: Crowdfund Insider and PYMNTS.com

Yomi Kazeem / Quartz:

Serena Williams reveals Serena Ventures, a fund she founded in 2014 that has backed 30 startups so far across e-commerce, fashion, and social good — Andela, the developer training and outsourcing company with operations in four African countries, already has a high-powered roll call …

More: The Daily Hodl, GiveMeSport, SportTechie, iAfrikan, PE Hub Blog, and Messari Crypto

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

GM's Cruise execs talk about the autonomous driving unit's history, its progress and plans, internal development tools they use, and more — According to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025. Meanwhile, Research and Markets is predicting …

More: Digital Trends

Karsten Schmehl / BuzzFeed News:

Research: some WhatsApp group users are spreading Nazi propaganda through stickers and chain letters in Germany, where local laws forbid the use of Nazi imagery — BERLIN — German WhatsApp users are spreading far-right propaganda through the use of stickers and chain letters but the company …

More: The Local and ResearchBuzz

Tweets: @raju, @buzzfeednews, @sunnysingh_n6, and @miriamelder

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Access:

Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Great Chat:

So what happens after AGI?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:10 AM ET, April 21, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.